In some ways the constitutional system of government in the United States is rather un-democratic. Both California and Rhode Island each are represented by 2 senators. Presidents are not elected by popular vote but by an electoral college. One key to understanding the electoral college is to understand that United States is plural. We are a nation of (more-or-less) sovereign states. The individual states are not just administrative districts. If they were we would not have such disparities in size and population as we do between California and Rhode Island.
No system of government if perfect, but there is plenty of wisdom in how the American form of government was established. Every American ought to try to understand how and why our system works the way it does.
| Constitutional Convention, 1787 |
Election Day
In the Webster's definition I gave for republic, it mentions elected officers and representatives governing according to law. That's important to remember this election day. The current Obama administration has been negligent in governing according to law. When Mr Barack Obama was inaugurated as President in January 2009, he swore to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States and to execute the laws of the nation.
This administration has not upheld the Constitution and the laws, from its declared refusal to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, which was constitutionally passed by the United States congress, to its lawsuit against the state of Arizona when that state passed a law to try to curb illegal immigration (because Arizona and other border states feel the federal government isn't doing its job to defend our borders), to the administration's mandate that forces religious institutions to carry insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs (a direct violation of the first ammendment) with the accompanying mandate that forces private insurance companies to provide such services "for free." Of course, nothing is free and the insurance companies will pass that cost on to their customers. But since when does the government have the right to dictate that any private business provide anything for free?
There have been other presidential administrations less than squeaky clean (the LBJ, Nixon and the Bush Jr administrations come to mind) but the Obama administration takes lawlessness to a new level. Sitting here in Poland and watching events in America from afar, I get the sense that the Benghazi horror has opened many more people's eyes to the disgusting deceitfulness and ineptitude of this administration.
American turkey
On a lighter note: About a month ago I was driving through a nearby village when I saw a very striking spectacle. I saw a big black tom turkey at the side of the road. Many farmers here raise turkeys, but they are typically of the commercial white variety. This was the first time I saw an example of what I think is the classic American black turkey. The tom was all puffed up and strutting around amongst some black turkey hens. A man and his sons were driving the turkeys across the road. I had to stop and watch. It was a beautiful sight that made my heart flutter.
In my opinion, the two greatest American poets are Robert Frost and Richard Wilbur. I know a lot of people consider Walt Whitman to be the greatest, but I find his poetry too undisciplined and self-indulgent (which admittedly are very American traits). Frost's and Wilbur's poetry include a wide range of metres and forms. What's more, the poems of each are at the same time very profound and yet accessible to anyone with a reasonable level of education. It's not esoteric stuff for professors sitting in ivory towers.
So, without further ado . . .
Black November Turkey
by Richard Wilbur
Nine white chickens come
With haunchy walk and heads
Jabbing among the chips, the chaff, the stones
And the cornhusk-shreds,
And bit by bit infringe
A pond of dusty light,
Spectral in shadow until they bobbingly one
By one ignite.
Neither pale nor bright,
The turkey-cock parades
Through radiant squalors, darkly auspicious as
The ace of spades,
Himself his own cortege
And puffed with the pomp of death,
Rehearsing over and over with strangled rale
His latest breath.
The vast black body floats
Above the crossing knees
As a cloud over thrashed branches, a calm ship
Over choppy seas,
Shuddering its fan and feathers
In fine soft clashes
With the cold sound that the wind makes, fondling
Paper-ashes.
The pale-blue boney head
Set on its shepherd's-crook
Like a saint's death-mask, turns a vague, superb
And timeless look
Upon these clocking hens
And the cocks that one by one,
Dawn after mortal dawn, with vulgar joy
Acclaim the sun.
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